The present invention relates generally to pet toys and more particularly, to a pet toy including a motion responsive sound device.
Pets, such as, for example, cats and dogs, which spend the majority of their time indoors, are becoming increasingly popular. In addition, due to the increasingly busy schedules of their owners, such pets are spending an increasing amount of time alone indoors when their owners are not present. While having healthy and happy pets is an objective of virtually every pet owner, the ability of pet owners to exercise and play with their pets is sometimes limited due to a lack of time and energy on behalf of the pet owner.
Many different devices have been developed to assist pet owners in keeping their pets happy and healthy. Such devices can be seen in numerous pet stores and catalogs. Different types of balls, bones and other such toys can be purchased by the owner to be used by their pets for exercise and enjoyment. However, pets tend to quickly lose interest in such devices and thus, the pets do not benefit from exercise and enjoyment from such devices when they are not used by the pets.
The foregoing illustrates limitations known to exist in present pet toys. Thus, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to provide an alternative directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations set forth above. Accordingly, a suitable alternative is provided including features more fully disclosed hereinafter.
In one aspect of the present invention, this is accomplished by providing a pet toy comprising an outer cover having an interior cavity; and an electronic sound device emitting a sound in response to movement of the pet toy, the sound device being positioned within the outer cover interior cavity. In one embodiment of the present invention, the outer cover simulates the appearance of a natural prey of the pet, such as a mouse or small bird and the sound device emits a pre-recorded sound that simulates the sound of the selected natural prey, such as squeaking or chirping. In another embodiment of the present invention, the outer cover has the shape of an object familiar to the pet, such as a football or large bone and the sound device is capable of recording personal messages from the pet""s owner so that the pet can hear his owner""s voice when playing with pet toy.
The foregoing and other aspects will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures.